Introduction

The final bell rang on Friday afternoon, and a flurry of students filled the halls. They stopped at their lockers, trying to get out of there as quickly as possible. A different type of flurry fell on their faces as they ran for buses or to the parking lot in search of cars to take them home for the weekend. Such was the way at Madison High School in rural Wisconsin.

Most of the students bussed or drove themselves as there was little civilization but the odd house. It was surrounded by cattle fields in the heart of dairy country, and this late winter had pushed local resources to their limit. It was just another few inches in the forecast that would exacerbate the problem, but no one knew how wrong that forecast was.

Linda Yakabovich walked down the rapidly emptying halls on her way to the cafetorium. She was the new science teacher at the school, fresh out of teacher’s college, and still filled with hope and passion. Her spirit had not yet been drained from the frustrations of the profession and the political drudgery of school life. For her first year, she wanted to make an impact, thus convincing the principal and the other science teachers to let her set up a science fair as a senior class project.

She’d been excited about it since she’d gotten approval from administration, and all the other teachers got on board. She couldn’t wait for the main event tomorrow and hoped everything would go well. A few students had asked to work on their booths after school, and she agreed to stay behind to supervise. With it being Friday and the weather iffy, she expected the janitorial staff to leave early. This would leave her as the sole staff member in the school, which would be a first for her.

As she entered the cafetorium, its beige cinder block walls were hidden behind several rows of tables that lined the center of the room. Several students were already working on their displays, placing signs, and setting up equipment. The rest would be set up tomorrow morning before the fair was to begin.

“Hi, Ms. Linda!” She heard as she entered the room. Despite school policy to address teachers by their last names, Linda preferred this approach. She knew her last name was difficult to pronounce. Also, it could be changed to something rude, so the principal allowed her to be called by her first name. It was one of the reasons she chose it.

As she walked through the rows of mostly empty tables, she did know most of the students, it being a smaller school, but there were some she only knew by reputation. There was Quinn, one of the physics students who was going over his presentation notes. He smiled at her as she passed, but she could still feel his eyes linger on her body as she walked by. She might be in her twenties, but she still looked good.

Maggie was a few tables down, her booth adorned with diagrams of the human body, with a focus on the endocrine system. Maggie was a newer student to the school, as her family recently immigrated from Hong Kong for work. Linda didn’t know her well. The word around the staff room was that she was razor sharp and a hard worker. Her parents instilled a tough work ethic in her, and it meant she didn’t have much of a social life or friends due to her parents’ demands for perfection.

A burst of laughter brought her attention to Miguel and Darius, two of the school’s star athletes. Miguel was a wide receiver on the football team, while the tall Darius was the captain of the basketball team. Darius was at Miguel’s booth, where the two friends played around with the robot that Miguel had constructed. He was making the small robot dance around on its back wheels while Darius put items in its arms to mess with the balance.

Miguel, a son of Mexican immigrants, was a smart student, but from what she’d heard, he had a hard time meeting deadlines when he wasn’t motivated. It wasn’t that he was lazy, he just was pulled in too many directions. He needed to do well in this project, or he might fail and not graduate.

As for Darius, he had scouts watching every game this season and had been given multiple offers to colleges across the country. What no one could understand, though, was he hadn’t accepted any offers yet. The 7’ tall black student would be the second person from his family to go to college, after his brother a few years earlier. The tragedy of Jamal seemed to weigh on his little brother’s mind as he focused more on school. His project melded his love of sports with science for a look at knees and joints, the stressors, and weak points, with the study of movement. It looked like when he made his choice, he wanted to go to college for more than just basketball. He wanted to have a backup plan.

The final student who wasn’t one of her own was Andrea, who’s booth was located near a back wall so she could plug in her laptop and monitors. From the tech program, Andrea focused on coding and machine learning with a ton of code flashing on her screens. Linda had no idea what any of that stuff was, but the girl sure seemed to. The teacher tried to say hello, but the very shy girl just gave a half wave and returned to her laptop, her fingers typing wildly on the keys. Andrea was a classic nerd girl with thick glasses, frizzy uncombed hair in a ponytail, and a wardrobe that looked like hand-me-downs from a thrift store. There was probably a pretty girl buried deep down in there if she’d just come out of her shell.

“How long do we have to be here?” asked a female voice from behind some Bristol board.

“A little while longer, I need this to be just right,” replied a more familiar one.

“God, I hate your nerd shit. Why’d you talk me into this?”

“I don’t know, but you came. Relax Karla, it isn’t that bad.”

A male voice from the next table jumped in, “Yeah, she has more important things to do Brittany, like make more slutty videos.”

“Shut up, Warren. At least my date to the prom won’t have to be inflated first,” Karla shot back.

“How many of the football team are you going with? Will there be a line?” asked Warren as he stood behind a large chemistry station, burners and tubes ran everywhere.

“Yeah, like you wouldn’t...” Karla tried to say but was cut off.

“Would you two shut up, I’m trying to work here,” Brittany then looked up from her own vials of liquids and saw Ms. Linda watching the commotion. “Hello, Ms. Linda.”

“Hello, Brittany, your booth looks good. Yours too Warren, except for all the angry sniping going on.”

Linda watched Brittany’s best friend Karla sulk in her chair while she waited for her friend to finish. She didn’t know Karla at all, other than through her more academically minded friend. What she did know was that she was a wannabe social media influencer with a growing group of followers. Her content had apparently become more sexually provocative, including videos of her mostly undressed or undressing into tiny outfits. Bra and panty shots were a regular occurrence but not enough to be called porn. It was mostly thirst trap stuff to get engagement. Linda had overheard a couple of male teachers guess how long it’d take her to be on OnlySluts after graduation. She could hear in their voices that the girl would likely have two early subscribers if she did, which grossed her out.